There's nothing better than being outside on a hot summer day. Sand in your shoes. Ice cream headache. Sweaty sunscreen dripping into your eyes. That's why there's nothing better than being able to crank the AC to escape the summer scorch anytime you want. If you have AC, that is. It may be hard to believe (kinda like one of those weight loss infomercials) but prior to the early 1900s, people just had to- well- fan themselves (talk about sweating to the oldies). But then along came Willis Carrier. And ladies, this guy was hot. Although everybody in the old days was hot without AC. But mechanical engineer Willis Carrier was about to make life in the 20th century very, very cool. You see our boy Willie was trying to fix a frustrating problem for a print shop in Brooklyn. Something funky was going on with the paper and the ink, and the answer came one foggy night in 1900 while Willis was waiting for a train. And because he couldn't watch cat videos on his phone, or slingshot little birds dressed like Star Wars characters, he was actually just standing there- thinking about stuff- as a world-changing idea emerged from the fog. Literally. The relationship between temperature, humidity, and dew point was the key to solving the print shop's problem. Willis installed a groundbreaking new system to control the environmental fluctuations that caused the paper to expand and contract. And as word spread about the cool new contraption, so did demand. Soon Willis formed his own company to sell air conditioning, and in the southern U.S. huge cities popped up in places nobody before AC really wanted to live. Yes, Willis Carrier’s pondering at the train station broke the ice for the modern climate control we all enjoy today. Cat videos on phones would have to wait another hundred years.

Illuminating Moments in American History
From the accidental invention of the microwave to the love story of rubber gloves, these 68 animated video shorts (shadow puppet style!) chronicle the history of unexpected American innovation.

Produced, written, and directed by Nathan Marsh. Art and Animation by Joel West and Isaac Windham. Sound by Scott Sprague. Narration by Carol Munse.